Tunisia's al-Nahda to form party

Tunisia's interim government has given the go-ahead to pro-democracy Islamist group to form a new political party.

Ghannouchi, leader of the previously banned al-Nahda party, returned to Tunisia after 20 years in exile [Reuters]

Tunisia's interim government has granted the main Islamist group, al-Nahda, permission to form a political party, the official Tunis Afrique Presse News Agency (TAP) said.

Government spokesman, Ali el-Aryadh, confirmed, "the al-Nahda movement has just been legalised".

Tuesday's decision will allow al-Nahda (The Awakening) to participate in upcoming elections. Al-Nahda was the strongest opposition force before being banned for two decades under toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's rule.

The movement was founded in 1981 by Rachid Ghannouchi and intellectuals inspired by the influential Muslim Brotherhood born in Egypt.

It was tolerated in the initial years after Ben Ali took power in 1987 but denied legal registration. After a good showing in 1989 parliamentary election, there was a crackdown on its activists and sympathisers.

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